MORRIS, Minn.-- North Central traveled to the University of Minnesota-Morris on Saturday for a contest billed as the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference game of the week. Unforntunetly the game turned out to be a one sided affair as the Cougars jumped on the Rams and ran away for a 95-75 victory.

The Rams fell behind by double-figures just three minutes into the game and trailed 16-2 before getting their first field goal with 15:19 to play in the half. NCU rarely challenged the rest of the way, trailling 48-31 at the break. 

Morris quickly pushed the difference over 20 early in the second half and it would rarely be closer than that the rest of the way as the Cougars created a three way tie for second place in the UMAC with their win. 

The Rams struggled shooting in the first half firing .355 while Morris shot over .650. NCU improved to over .400 for the game but the Cougars never cooled off on the way to shooting over .600 on the night.

KEY SEQUENCE OF THE GAME

Minnesota-Morris grabbed control early and North Central never had an answer as the Cougars set the tone quickly. NCU missed their first seven shots over the first five minutes of the game. During that same time segment, UMM was 7-8 and grabbed an offensive rebound on their lone miss that they put back for a lay-up.

North Central did not score on back to back possessions until almost six minutes into the half to make it 16-6. But Morris scored back to back baskets of their own to make it 20-6 and the Cougars never led by less than 11 the rest of the night.

KEY PERFORMERS

On a night where most things went wrong for North Central, junior Isaiah Rustad (Hudson, Iowa/Hudson) did all he could to keep the Rams in the game. He scored 18 points with 6 boards and 3 steals. He was also 5-6 from the free throw line on a night where the Rams shot just 11 free throws as a team. 

Also of note was senior Josh High (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo) scoring 12 points on four made three point baskets. With his effort on Saturday he has tied Matthew Zachery for the lead in career made three pointers with plenty of action left to make the record his own.

UP NEXT

North Central will be back at home on Tuesday for an NCCAA Division II region game against Providence University-College (Otterburne, Manitoba). The Rams and Pilots tip off at 7:30 p.m.